NLRB complains Black Friday protesters went too far

THAT WAS THEN: Hundreds of protesters launched a nationwide Black Friday blitz against Walmart in 2013.

By Eric Boehm | Watchdog.org

Labor union members and protesters who stormed a Michigan Walmart on “Black Friday” in 2012 have landed in hot water with the National Labor Relations Board.

The NLRB has filed a complaint against Our Walmart, a so-called “workers center” group that organizes protests and claims to represent employees at the national big-box retailer, and the United Food and Commercial Workers labor union, which funds Our Walmart’s activities. The complaint also names a number of individuals, including UFCW employees and members of Occupy Detroit, who participated in protests at a Walmart in Dearborn, Mich., in November.

STORMING THE STORE: A video posted to the Occupy Detroit YouTube page shows protesters streaming into the WalMart store in Dearborn, Mich., on Black Friday 2012. That event is now the subject of an NLRB inquiry.

The protesters in Dearborn apparently stepped it up a little too much.

According to the NLRB, “approximately 50 to 80” individuals stormed the electronics section of the Walmart and remained there for up to 20 minutes. While that was happening, seven women and one man entered the women’s restroom and “coercively interrogated an employee regarding her wages, hours and working conditions.”

Occupy Detroit posted a video of the protest on their YouTube page, showing the planning and execution of the protest.

Those disruptive activities violate the National Labor Relations Act, according to the NLRB. Labor unions are not allowed to interfere with business during protests or strikes, under federal labor laws.

The NLRB complaint orders the two organizations to cease and desist from “restraining and coercing employees” during protests.

The labor union and Our Walmart have until Monday to respond to the complaint.

Unions such as the UFCW and workers centers such as Our Walmart have a mutually beneficial relationship. Since the workers’ centers are registered as nonprofits, they are allowed to engage in activities that would be off-limits for labor unions constrained by federal labor laws.

STAND UP, LIVE BETTER: Protesters who set up shop inside the Walmart’s electronics section may have violated federal labor laws.

As Bill McMorris of the Washington Free Beacon notes: “Federal labor law bars unions from interfering in business operations directly during strikes and protests, but those tactics have been common in Walmart and fast food protests in recent months. Protesters have gone largely unpunished by relying on non-profit worker centers to sponsors the rallies. Nonprofit groups are not subject to the laws that limit unions, despite the millions of dollars that worker centers receive from Big Labor groups like the UFCW and SEIU.”

And the workers’ centers have made a name for themselves by doing just that.

“The UFCW cannot afford to settle this case because they want to protect these tactics,” he said. “So this is a fairly high stakes issue because it could disarm the tactics that make worker centers attractive front groups.”

Contact Eric Boehm at EBoehm@Watchdog.org and follow @EricBoehm and @WatchdogOrg on Twitter for more.

Eric is a reporter for Watchdog.org and former bureau chief for Pennsylvania Independent. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he enjoys great weather and low taxes while writing about state governments, pensions, labor issues and economic/civil liberty. Previously, he worked for more than three years in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, covering Pennsylvania state politics and occasionally sneaking across the border to Delaware to buy six-packs of beer. He has also lived (in order of desirability) in Brussels, Belgium, Pennsburg, Pa., Fairfield, Conn., and Rochester, N.Y. His work has appeared in Reason Magazine, National Review Online, The Freeman Magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Examiner and elsewhere. He received a bachelor's degree from Fairfield University in 2009, but he refuses to hang on his wall until his student loans are fully paid off sometime in the mid-2020s. When he steps away from the computer, he enjoys drinking craft beers in classy bars, cheering for an eclectic mix of favorite sports teams (mostly based in Philadelphia) and traveling to new places.